Stalin’s Year in Russia

Yuri Yemelianov

In 2009 Russian communists and those in Russia who cherish the memory
of the Soviet past marked the 130th anniversary of Stalin. Two decades
ago the attacks on the socialist order were accompanied by a noisy and
slanderous campaign against Stalin. Practically all newspapers and
magazines at that time published articles vilifying Stalin. The Soviet
leader who died 35 years ago was a constant object of attacks in TV and
radio programmes. All the troubles of Russia were explained by Stalin’s
real and mostly imaginary misdeeds. The books published on Stalin at
that time distorted the historical truth. The whole Soviet history and
Stalin’s period in particular were depicted as a time of gloom and
terror.

Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union many people began to
realise the falsifications of anti-Stalinist propaganda. Some of them
brought portraits of Stalin to the demonstrations and meetings of
growing opposition forces. Yet even in November 1994 when an
international conference on Stalin took place in a small room of the
Moscow University it was attended mostly by representatives of foreign
communist parties. (India was represented by comrade Vijay Singh.) Only
small Communist groups of Russia were present at the meeting. Now on
the 21st of December 2009 when the final event of Stalin’s anniversary
celebrations took place in a big hall of Izmailovsky Palace, several
thousands of people attended the meeting.

That change was a result of the gradual transformations of political
moods in Russia. During the last two decades a great number of Russian
people began to compare the decline of post-Soviet Russia with the
achievements of Stalin’s time. While in 1990 only 9% of the
participants of the poll made a positive estimate of Stalin nowadays
the positive attitude towards Stalin increased to 40% of those polled.
At the same time the share of those who have negative attitude to
Stalin decreased to 25%. The rest failed to define their attitude.

Despite the domination of Anti-Soviet and Anti-Stalinist propaganda in
the Russian mass media and schools the popularity of Stalin began to
grow. At the end of 2008 during an Internet poll Stalin led among those
outstanding figures of Russia who were chosen to personify ‘The Name of
Russia’. The organisers of this poll nullified the results and
organised a new one. And again Stalin became the winner. Then the TV
made a programme ‘The Name of Russia’ which was shown every Sunday
night during 12 weeks. The TV audience was urged to vote via telephone.
During the show Stalin was vilified bitterly. There were obvious
falsifications of the results of the poll. And yet Stalin’s name took
the third place among the 12 public figures of Russian history.

The changed mood was reflected in the growing demand for true
information about Stalin and the Soviet history. As a result many books
were written and published which paid tribute to Stalin and his great
positive role in the Soviet history. Not all of them were written by
Marxists. Yet most of the present authors of books on Stalin recognise
his great role in building a powerful state and in leading it towards
victory over Nazi Germany and its allies.

The 130th anniversary of Stalin was an occasion for expressing the
changed attitudes of public opinion. In the beginning of 2009 the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation –
the biggest and the most influential party of opposition – published
its resolution on Stalin’s anniversary. According to this resolution
the Party press published articles on Stalin’s life and activity. The
chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia
Gennady Zhuganov published a book called ‘Stalin and Modern Times’.
Lectures on Stalin’s life and activities were delivered. The interest
of this information was so vivid that sometimes a lecturer had to speak
for several hours without stop.

In Moscow, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Stalingrad (now Volgograd)
and many cities and towns of Russia conferences dedicated to Stalin
took place. One of them was organised in Vologda, a city situated north
from Moscow where Stalin was exiled before the October revolution.

The typical for Russia log-cabin situated at one of the Vologda streets
was recently decorated by a marble plaque which states that here lived
Stalin during his exile. Inside one may see a figure of Stalin made of
wax. It represents the still young revolutionary reading a book at a
table in a very small room. According to the police records during his
one month stay in Vologda Stalin visited a local library 17 times and
never went to the cinema-hall which was so popular at that time. Among
the books taken by Stalin from the library were books on philosophy,
economics, astronomy and mathematics. It is known that Stalin presented
to some of his Vologda friends a book on the history of arts.

The museum dedicated to Stalin’s exile was visited by the participants
of the conference ‘The Man and the Epoch’ dedicated to the 130th
anniversary of Stalin’s birthday. The conference organised in the
Vologda University lasted two days and was attended by scholars and
communist leaders of Moscow, Leningrad, Vologda, Archangel,
Petrozavodsk, Cherepovetz. The students and post-graduate students of
Vologda University also took an active part in it. Many of them made
their contributions during the conference.

The scope of the interventions embraced many topics. Speakers dealt
with the economic and social transformations performed during Stalin’s
time, discussed his role as a political and military leader. The
popular Vologda writer R. Balakshin devoted his report on the songs of
Stalin’s era. The reporter brought special attention to those popular
songs which included quotations from Stalin’s speeches.

Many reports were illustrated with facts and figures related to the
North European part of Russia of Stalin’s time. The report by historian
S. Tzvetkov was dedicated to the analysis of letters written by
citizens from Vologda oblast to Stalin and the latter's reactions to
these letters. One peasant woman complained to Stalin about her
material problems. Yet she invited Stalin to stay in her house situated
in the Vologda countryside where he ‘may find a lot of wild berries and
enjoy a good rest in the woods’. Another letter was from a teenage girl
who told Stalin that her mother was unjustly expelled from the
Communist party. Tzvetkov pointed out that soon the woman was restored
to the ranks of the Party.

A worker Blokhin from a Voloda oblast wrote to Stalin in 1924 that he
decided to change his surname and call himself Lenin. But his friends
dissuaded him, telling that the name of Lenin is too important for
Blokhin. Then, wrote Blokhin, ‘I decided to change my surname to
Stalin’. Blokhin asked Stalin’s permission for the change.

Stalin answered to Blokhin. He said that he had no objections against
his wish. ‘Now, – wrote Stalin, – you will become my brother.

It is especially pleasant for me since I never had a brother’.

The same atmosphere of fraternal relations between Stalin and the
working people of the Soviet Union was illustrated in a documentary
film made for Stalin’s anniversary and was shown at the conference. The
film which highlighted the most important stages of Stalin’s life
included unique cinematographic evidence of meetings between Stalin and
working Soviet people in the intervals of Party congresses and other
official events.

Later this film made by Helen and Michael Kostrikovs was shown at the
meeting at Izmailovsky palace. The meeting was opened by the Secretary
of the Central Committee of Russia D. Novikov. He pointed out that
during the ‘Stalin’s enrolment’ campaign launched in 2009 over 10
thousand new members joined the Party. This increased the Party
membership to more than 60 thousands. Thousands of communists were
awarded a medal dedicated to the 130th anniversary of Stalin. The medal
represents a replica of the ‘Order of Stalin’ which was made during the
War. Yet at that time Stalin did not allow this order to be established.

The main speaker at the meeting was G. Zhuganov. In his report he
brought forth eloquent facts about achievements of Stalin’s time and
contrasted them with the decline of economic, social and cultural life
of modern Russia.

Then the scene was occupied by the world-famous the Alexandrov Song and
Dance Army Group. Under the big portrait of Stalin the performers sang
the words from ‘March of Artillery men’: ‘Men of artillery! We heed the
order of Stalin! The fatherland calls us!...’ The brilliant performance
of the Group added to the atmosphere of enthusiasm shared by the
audience.

It is clear that after decades of lies and slander the number of those
who shared the good memory of Stalin and ideas of just and prosperous
social order grow. It demonstrates that the successes of the
anti-Communists are temporary and the cause of communism is invincible.